JEFFERSON CITY – If enough lawmakers are supportive, a House committee will vote on articles of impeachment against Gov. Jay Nixon, the committee's chairman said today.

Rep. Stanley Cox, R-Sedalia, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the issues raised by the articles are legitimate, though he declined to say if he personally supports them. The committee finished an impeachment hearing today after beginning last week.

"What the question I'm going to ask them is if they believe it merits further action and that's something they're going to have to decide," Cox said.

Last week, Rep. Nick Marshall, R-Parkville, presented his resolution of impeachment, which alleges Nixon, a Democrat, violated Missouri law by signing an executive order allowing legally married same-sex couples to file joint tax returns in Missouri. Today, Rep. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, said the governor should be impeached for not calling elections to fill vacant House and Senate seats quick enough. State law requires elections to be called "without delay."

Moon said Nixon did not call elections to fill some vacancies for several months. Recent past governors have called elections faster than Nixon, he said.

"Gov. Wilson in 2000 had an average time of 72 days. Gov. Holden, 124. Gov. Blunt, 140," Moon said. "And now I want to point out that Gov. Nixon's average is 169, considerably higher than the others."

Rep. Kevin McManus, D-Kansas City, said the question comes down to how the law is interpreted and at what point a delay in calling an election becomes impeachable. He said the question of whether Nixon violated the law requiring elections to be called "without delay" should be decided by the courts.

"Every single governor probably has, in some people's interpretation, could have been said to have had unreasonable delay. But ultimately the issue of reasonableness probably needs to be decided by whom? Probably by the courts," McManus said.

McManus asked Moon if former Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican, should have been impeached for times when he did not immediately call elections to fill vacancies. Moon said yes, Blunt should have been impeached.

Rep. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, also presented a resolution to impeach the governor for failing to punish or discipline officials in his administration after lawmakers last year found that the Missouri Highway Patrol had shared the list of concealed-carry permit holders, obtained from the Department of Revenue, with the federal government.

In fact, DOR director Brian Long did resign on April 15, 2013, as lawmakers were investigating. But Brattin took issue with how Nixon described the resignation.

"If you look at the news release of the governor thanking him saying job well done, best wishes for your future endeavors, that's not holding anybody to account for what they did," Brattin said.

The possibility that Nixon will actually be impeached, let alone convicted and removed from office, remain very slim. If the committee votes to send the articles of impeachment to the full House, there is no guarantee the chamber would take up the measures in the last two weeks of session. Any debate would likely be highly charged and consume lawmakers' time as the clock ticks toward a constitutionally-mandated May 16 adjournment.